Northern Territory rural market on a positive note: HTW

The rural sector in the Northern Territory welcomes 2017 in a very positive fashion, with a promising start to the wet season and very good commodity prices generally, according to Herron Todd White’s latest report.

The property valuation firm says that it brings an air of confidence which will hopefully result in increased activity and investment.

In the pastoral sector, strong live export prices are still being experienced out of Darwin and other northern ports.

Although it would appear that most NT properties changed hands in the course of 2015/6, there are in fact a number of properties still on the market.

“We are aware of at least three pastoral lease transactions to have exchanged not only in the Top End but also in the Centre, and hope to report on these once they are finalised.

Additionally, the purchase of Phoenix Park at Katherine by the Hancock Group has seen renewed interest in larger freehold blocks with good highway access, which are suitable for depot blocks, especially for owners of more remote pastoral leases that do not have good access.

Again, we will provide details once these properties have settled,” the report stated.

Many of these types of properties also have horticultural potential.

Through 2016, the sandalwood industry continued to show its dominance in this sector, purchasing and developing more country.

The latest sale of Early Storms in the Douglas Daly district further consolidated this trend.

Early Storms had previously been a very productive melon farm, however its conversion to sandalwood is indicative of changing land uses in this district.

The emergence of the sandalwood industry is also part of the reason for an increasing focus on water allocations in the NT.

“At this time, we are not aware of any arm’s length sales of water licences between properties in the NT.

However as investment in horticulture increases, it is expected that demand for water will increase.

Over time, we expect to see the value of water allocations in the NT become much more important to the same extent seen in irrigation areas in southern states,” the report stated.

The NT has an abundance of water and an abundance of land but there are relatively few places where good quality soil types and reliable water intersect.

Certainly the NT Government wants to ensure that the mistakes of over allocation of water licences which occurred in other jurisdictions is not repeated here.

“We therefore see that the limited amount of allocated water will become more valuable over time, possibly at a faster rate than the land on which it is used,” the report stated.

A rural property at 6755 Florina Road, Katherine (above), the Florina Station, was sold for $6,802,534 last August.